Mumbai, 24 June-2014, A. Mirsab: Jamiat Ulema Maharashtra (Arshad Madani Group) organized a meet on Saturday in Mumbai to discuss and prepare list of demands from the Maharashtra state government. The said meeting was held at Haj house in Central Mumbai. The meet was attended by nearly 450 representatives of Jamiat across the state. Muslim reservation quota of 20 % on the line of government’s consideration of 20% reservations to Maratha community was at the centre point of the discussion among many other Muslim issues in the state.

1. Muslims in Maharashtra must be provided with 20% reservations in education and jobs on the line of state’s consideration of providing 20% reservation to Maratha community.

2. As there is little difference in population of Muslim community (constituting 12.5 %) and Maratha community (constituting 15 %) living in the state, both the communities should be imparted with same % of reservation by the state.

3. State government’s inclination of providing reservation to Maratha community only within a year of recommendation by Rane commission was questioned when Sachar committee’s recommendation of reservations to Muslims was pending with it since last 7 years.

4. State police laxity in controlling violence in different parts of state after the purported uploading of offensive images on internet was also discussed and police machinery was blamed for the damages suffered by Muslims in the state due to recent riot like situations.

5. Representatives informed the meet that Muslims in the state are feeling harassed by the state police during latest violence in the state and have lost complete faith in them as cops have not acted wisely but have favored majority community people by not arresting many culprits who had taken part in the violence.

6. Condolences were offered to Muslim techie Mohsin Shaikh who was brutally murdered in Pune at the hands of members of Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS) and was further told that Muslims in state were very much angry with the police due to their incompetent response to the violence under taken by Hindu radicals.

7. It was decided that state should appoint Muslim representatives in every committee or commission formed for probing Muslim issues.

8. It was brought to the notice that due non fulfillment of post of state Hajj Committee chairman, Hajis of the state had to face many problems as there was no representative for the state in the central Hajj committee and therefore it was strongly recommended to immediately fill the vacant post.

9. It was also included into the list of demands to the state to appoint Muslim members in the state minority commission.

10. The need of secular parties to work together was also discussed and all secular parties were advised to follow example of support by RJD to JD(U) in Bihar for the election of Rajya Sabha MP.

The meet was presided over by state president Maulana Mustaqeem Ahsan Azmi who also addressed the attended Jamiat representatives from many districts. In the end Jamiat’s Maharahstra state general secretary Maulana Haleemullah Kazmi presented last year report of state’s Jamiat unit in various fields where as Jamiat legal cell secretary Gulzar Azmi presented Jamiat’s successes recently achieved in defending innocent Muslims implicated falsely in terror cases. Gulzar Azmi expressed happiness in Jamiat’s role to prove innocence of 9 Muslim men arrested for Akshardham terror case by Gujarat police.